Washington Basketball Player Slaps Colorado Heckler
BOULDER, Colo. (The Sports Xchange/CBS4) -Washington Huskies forward Malik Dime slapped a Colorado heckler during halftime of Thursday night's game at the Coors Events Center in Boulder.
Dime apparently was frustrated by taunts from fans in CU's student section.
Washington coaches had to restrain the senior from Dakar, Senegal. Dime walked up to the student before slapping him after the halftime buzzer sounded, according to multiple reports. His follow-through slap reportedly carried over and hit a second student in the face.
"I'm aware of it," Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said after his Huskies lost 81-66 to the Buffaloes. "I don't know anything about the details. I will look into it."
The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Dime was sitting out his ninth consecutive game with a broken right pinkie finger. He is averaging 5.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 15 games this season.
Both fans, identified only as Dylan and Brian, gave their version of events to BSN Denver.
"We were talking the usual game talk with the players like we usually do," Dylan, sitting in the Colorado student section called the C-Unit. "Malik looked over at us at one point and said, 'I'm gonna come over there and slap the (expletive) out of you.' We didn't think that was real so we just laughed and then at the end of the half he came over to us and pretended like he was giving me a handshake and I reached out and he pulled back and slapped me in the face and the follow through hit the person sitting right next to me, which was Brian."
"I thought it was a real handshake," Brian, also a C-Unit student member, added. "He came over with a windup, it was a hard hit. It's a double face, there's no way around that."
The student identified as Brian told the Tacoma News Tribune that "everything's been made right" and that Dime apologized after the game.
